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I can't predict when I have the time to post a new blog, but check occasionally. I'm going to try at least weekly.

Friday, June 2, 2017

We have a moving date...sorta.

Song of the day: “Issues” by Julia
Michaels, is often tumbling through my mind these days. Very accurate for most
folks, I’m guessing, so I don’t feel too weird having this as an earworm.

Well, lots has happened since the
last blog, so I might as well get to it right away, right?

So it’s a done deal, big brother
and I are moving house again. Yes, I know, we’ve been at the cute little farm
for only nine months or so, but that doesn’t change the fact that when an
opportunity arises, we shouldn’t jump on it like ticks on a hound…okay, gross
analogy, I know, but you know what I mean.

As to the opportunity…well, there
was one at our old place of employment. If we were to live in the same area as
before once more, big brother could get a full time position at the technical
department of the Spa & Wellness, and I could get back to the cleaning, if
I want to (not a hundred percent sure yet about that, but we’ll see) on a part
time basis at the very least. Since I can’t do more than part time anyway, this
is certainly an option. Gotta have time
left to write and edit, so sacrifices have to be made in the job department,
naturally. Can’t have two careers, and since writing is definitely the dream,
I’ll scrub friggin’ floors if I have to.

Anyways, big brother is rather
happy with the opportunity. He always liked working there (duh, doing technical
shaite is way more fun than mere cleaning) so it is a great chance for him to
also have a “normal career” while I try to get this whole writing thing up and
running.

Writing. Well, we’re still in the
editing stages. Some details that need to be ironed out, and since the book is
so long, it is taking the editor longer than planned to get the bit on her side
done. Well, duh. That was my problem, too when I had to do the last changes.
Seriously, the 8-10 hours slaving behind
the computer to try to get it all done in time, weren’t easy by any
means. Let’s hope that the editor at least has to admit that that was pretty
amazing in the few weeks that I had to do the, what turned out to be massive
changes. Grrrr. I cried, for crying out loud, especially when the darn thing
finally went out and I could breathe a little easier once more.

But anyway, I was pretty happy
with how the changes brought it back to the former quality once more, but
apparently it wasn’t enough yet. What lies in the future is changing more
chapters in regards to their POV, because for some reason the book has to be
more from the female perspective. A
pity, that, considering that I wrote the book primarily from the hero’s point
of view. Grrr. But what has to be done, has to be done. We’ll get it sorted
out…somehow.

What else? Well, spent a long
weekend at my father’s place last week. Not just a pleasure trip, I assure you.
Big brother and I promised to move the shed from the back yard to the front,
which turned out to be a bit more difficult than anticipated. Partly because
there were parts of the wood infested with woodworm, *sigh*, and because the
poor structure was old and had endured a large amount of patchwork jobs over
the years to prevent leakage and what not. Anyways, there was quite a bit of
improvising involved in terms of getting the right wood to replace the
old…especially since our tools are not as extensive as they used to
be…replacing the roof, moving the foundation from the old spot to the new
before actually getting the shed there, etc.

The way we went about it was
removing the damaged wood and the roof entirely, and then literally lifted the
shed from its concrete foundation so we could remove it and place it in the new
spot that we still had to dig out on the spot. The darn thing was friggin
heavy, I tell you. Big brother and I could barely lift it with the both of us,
prior to the removal of the damaged wood, but once that was done, and
attachment points were put in place for easy lifting, we carried the thing
together with stepmother and littlest brother, who came over during his lunch
break for this very purpose.

What we had planned to be two
days, turned out to be four in the end, partly because putting the whole thing
back together was a tad more complicated by past-time patch jobs, and because
hauling everything to the other side of the yard was a friggin heavy job what
with near tropical temperatures for the duration of our stay (seriously, it was
like being back in Spain! High 90s temps, for crying out loud!) meaning that I sweated like a race horse as I
hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with roof tiles, shells (they were for
underneath the floor because they keep mice from tunneling under there) and of
course all the wood and whatnot.

It didn’t help at all that at the
beginning of the third day I stepped onto a patch of cut-off bamboo shoots and
ended up with a serious hole in the bottom of my foot. Yep. That’s me. Why do
things easy and without pain when you can do it with it? Grrrr. Anyway, when I
inspected the damage, I first didn’t realize the extent of it and thought that
something sticky got stuck under my foot. Grabbed it, and yanked it off. Turned
out to be a couple of inches of skin. Aaaaargh. Rather than risk complete
immobility if I stopped to really treat it, I decided to go the natural way,
and used the soil as a bandage. Yep. The dusty ground worked really well as a
bandage. Got a nice patch of mud on the damaged area, and it made for easier
walking than on shoes, so that’s what I did for the remainder of the work
days—walk around barefoot, because at least it would allow me to balance on my
foot in such a way that I wasn’t constantly standing on the hole.

It did mean that I needed to
clean it properly that evening prior to going out for dinner, as was the folks’
solution to feeding everyone in the evening. Hah. Nice food, mind you, but
after hauling shaite for 9 or 10 hours I would have been just as happy with
takeout pizza before passing out for the night. Gawd, it had been too long
since I did this kind of work. Seriously, the first night I could barely sleep
from all the twinges and aches all over, and the second night I woke every two
hours for the same reason, before I finally just passed out on the third night.
Hah.

But, as I was saying, the
cleaning of the hole in my foot involved soaking my feet in baking soda water,
and then spraying it with teatree oil, antiseptic spray. Stung like mad, but it
did do the job.

This was the procedure for the
next day, too, since barefoot was less painful than shoes, and we did in the
end get the whole thing done.

Of course, the moment we
left…sometime around 9 PM…the weather turned, and we came home to a nice low
eighties summer evening. Yay. A little late, but I am not going to complain
about cooler temps after four days of sweltering. It was a good four days,
though. I missed the kind of satisfying work, building something is. Nothing
quite beats the sensation of standing in front of a structure that you put
there with your own blood, sweat and tears. Hah

We were late getting home,
meaning I had to rush the cleaning of my foot a little so I’d get to bed on
time. Work the next day, after all, despite being friggin’ bone tired. Work
went well enough for a couple of hours, but then the foot started hurting like
heck (the heat of friction, you know. Can’t stop that when you’re walking
around in shoes, despite cloudy weather) so I finished the day by clenching my
jaw and just putting one foot in front of the other until it was done.

Did manage to do my qi gong the
next day, albeit later in the afternoon. Was really necessary too, considering
the four days away where I simply didn’t have the energy for it. Was so nice to
go through the familiar motions that I barely even noticed the discomfort in my
foot through most of it. Do need to keep that up, even if I do start working
more regularly. Especially the shoulder exercises that keep the muscles there
supple, because a lot of tension gathers there really fast.

Moving. Yes, it is definitely
happening now. Last week we got a tip, and since then we have seen the outside,
got a tour of the inside the day after getting home from our father’s place,
and everyone is in agreement that we will move in there the moment it is free
sometime in the middle of the month. Same deal as our present residence, and only
twenty minutes away from work.

It’s a big place, which was my
first requirement. These days I have a lot of problems with small spaces, in particular
if I have to spend a lot of time there (like during edits and such) so I don’t
much care for primitive stuff, as long as it is big. Thankfully this place is
not at all primitive, in fact it looks a little like the place I grew up in
prior to Spain. Same sort of design, same sturdy materials, albeit a little
less elegant. The nicest part is the big kitchen. It’s huge, with a nice
kitchen island which will make cooking there a pleasure.

Also the living room is massive,
with nice big windows, so basically I have already decorated the whole place in
my mind. Hah. Going to have a little fun with that when I get to it. I will be allowed to paint walls
white, which is probably something that needs doing, because everything is very
beige, and thus dark now, something I have a little bit of difficulty with. I
don’t like dark at all. There are a total of five bedrooms upstairs in the
place, and two extra rooms downstairs, so I’ll also have to think about what to
do with those.

But no matter, the nicest part of
the place is the double garage, meaning that the cars will be protected and
won’t need as much cleaning. Yay! And
there is a massive shed, which has some potential for a fitness area, for as
far as I’m concerned.

Now the nicest part would be that
we’re allowed to have a dog there, which is sorely tempting for as far as I’m
concerned. There were thoughts of maybe getting my Sitabah here when I move,
but I don’t want to be selfish in that regard. Poor baby is in the only place
she knows as home, with all the dogs she’s known her entire life, and me she
hasn’t seen in two years, and has probably forgotten completely, so for her it
would be horrible if I did that.

But it is tempting. I mean
imagine, having her here, and maybe Tadaika, or Fortune. *sigh* A girl can
dream, right?

What else?

Well, packing is in progress,
naturally. All the knick knacks are packed already, the books, dvds and
basically anything that makes the place look cosy is gone already. It’s getting
more spacious by the minute. Hah. Do have to be careful during the whole thing.
I notice that familiar sadness. The kind I had in Spain while getting rid of
everything, which is ridiculous, considering that this move is entirely
voluntary and I won’t have to throw anything, since we’re just planning on
renting another van and getting it all there, too…except maybe the couch. Am
finding myself thinking of exchanging it for another one at some point, so I am
not sure whether I’m going to do it before the move or after. We’ll see.

Have planned a small, casual
dinner party sometime next week. A goodbye sort of thing for the neighbors, who
have been wonderful for the past nine months. They were very pleasant people to
live between, that’s a fact. Am going to do an Italian meal that we can all
share around a big table. Two, maybe three courses, involving stuff that I then
won’t have to haul along in the move. Yay.

And that about sums up the past
few weeks, I guess. Actually some change for a change, pardon the repetition.
Hah. Am writing this while waiting for
my job interview at the spa & wellness. Drove in together with big brother,
meaning I had to get up at four, since at the moment we still live a good fifty
minutes away from work. Would be wasteful for me to drive separately, so now
I’m killing time doing some catching up like this one, and maybe some edit
planning later on.

Since I will have to fill the
remainder of the day as well, I will also do some shopping later, visit with
some friends and then hopefully pick up big brother on time…not very likely,
since yesterday was his first day here and he didn’t get home until six or so
in the evening. Grrr. Lucky for him I had already cooked dinner (even had my
meat for a change, good Sammie!) and he could dig right in.

Which is it for now…well, at
least it was a decent size blog today, amounting to a whopping three pages,
compared to the average 1 I manage these days. I know, bad Sammie, bad Sammie. I am trying to do better and be here more
frequently, but you know how it goes. So much to do and so little time to do it
in.

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Cover quote by Naima Simone

Samaya Young

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Cover quote by Jodi Linton

About Me

Hi, I'm Sam. I live in the Netherlands now...again, after living in Southern Spain with my family and our thirty...something dogs for the past 20 years. I know, bonkers, right? But if you have to have a purpose in life, you might as well take a bunch of abandoned dogs into your home and let them live out their lives. Regretfully, the economic crisis no longer allowed that, so me and big brother are back to our origins, trying to make a living for ourselves while sending over what we can to help our dogs live out the remainder of their lives. Not easy, but a gall's gotta do what a gall's gotta do, right?
My blog is about life in general while we work, try to survive in an alien country, and attempt to finish a variety of books that we at some point want to get published, of course. Above all else, my passion lies there (WRITING RULES!!!), and some day I hope to take it some place where I'll be able to make a living of it.
Until then...I just try to enjoy every single day as it comes. As everyone should!